WHO teams visits Wuhan food stuff current market in look for of virus clues

WUHAN, China — A World Well being Corporation crew searching into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic on Sunday frequented the food stuff market place in the Chinese city of Wuhan that was connected to several early bacterial infections.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

The group customers visited the Huanan Seafood Industry for about an hour in the afternoon, and one of them flashed a thumbs up indication when reporters requested how the vacation was heading.

The market was the web site of a December 2019 outbreak of the virus. Scientists originally suspected the virus came from wild animals sold in the market place. The marketplace has considering the fact that been largely ruled out but it could provide hints to how the virus unfold so greatly.

“Very vital web-site visits nowadays — a wholesale market place to start with & Huanan Seafood Marketplace just now,” Peter Daszak, a zoologist with the U.S. team EcoHealth Alliance and a member of the WHO workforce, said in a tweet. “Very insightful & vital for our joint groups to comprehend the epidemiology of COVID as it started to spread at the close of 2019.”

Earlier in the working day, the group members were being also seen going for walks via sections of the Baishazhou marketplace — just one of the premier wet marketplaces in Wuhan — surrounded by a significant entourage of Chinese officials and reps. The market was the food items distribution centre for Wuhan throughout the city’s 76-day lockdown very last yr.

The users, with knowledge in veterinary drugs, virology, food safety and epidemiology, have so considerably frequented two hospitals at the centre of the early outbreak — Wuhan Jinyintan Medical center and the Hubei Integrated Chinese and Western Medicine Medical center.

On Saturday, they also visited a museum exhibition committed to the early historical past of COVID-19.

The mission has turn out to be politically billed, as China seeks to stay clear of blame for alleged missteps in its early response to the outbreak.

A one check out by scientists is unlikely to ensure the virus’s origins. Pinning down an outbreak’s animal reservoir is ordinarily an exhaustive endeavour that can take a long time of analysis such as taking animal samples, genetic assessment and epidemiological reports.

One particular probability is that a wildlife poacher could have passed the virus to traders who carried it to Wuhan. The Chinese authorities has promoted theories, with minimal evidence, that the outbreak could possibly have begun with imports of frozen seafood tainted with the virus, a idea roundly turned down by intercontinental experts and businesses.

___

Soo reported from Hong Kong.

Emily Wang Fujiyama And Zen Soo, The Affiliated Press